The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) reports that family-owned farms remain the backbone of the agriculture industry. The latest data come from the Census of Agriculture farm typology report and help shine light on the question, “What is a family farm?”

“As we wrap up mining the 6 million data points from the latest Census of Agriculture, we used typology to further explore the demographics of who is farming and ranching today,” said NASS Statistics Division Director Hubert Hamer. “What we found is that family-owned businesses, while very diverse, are at the core of the U.S. agriculture industry. In fact, 97 percent of all U.S. farms are family-owned.”

The 2012 Census of Agriculture Farm Typology report is a special data series that primarily focuses on the “family farm.” By definition, a family farm is any farm where the majority of the business is owned by the operator and individuals related to the operator, including through blood, marriage, or adoption. Key highlights from the report include the following five facts about family farms in the United States:

Five Facts to Know about Family Farms

1. Food equals family – 97 percent of the 2.1 million farms in the United States are family-owned operations.

2. Small business matters – 88 percent of all U.S. farms are small family farms.

3. Local connections come in small packages – 58 percent of all direct farm sales to consumers come from small family farms.

4. Big business matters too – 64 percent of all vegetable sales and 66 percent of all dairy sales come from the 3 percent of farms that are large or very large family farms.

5. Farming provides new beginnings – 18 percent of principal operators on family farms in the U.S. started within the last 10 years.

“Whether small or large – on the East Coast, West Coast, or the Midwest – family farms produce food and fiber for people all across the U.S. and the world,” said Hamer. “It’s due in part to information such as this from the Census of Agriculture that we can help show the uniqueness and importance of U.S. agriculture to rural communities, families, and the world.”

The 2012 Census of Agriculture Farm Typology report classifies all farms into unique categories based on three criteria: who owns the operation, whether farming is the principal operator’s primary occupation, and gross cash farm cash income (GCFI). Small family farms have GCFI less than $350,000; midsize family farms have GCFI from $350,000 to $999,999; and large family farms have GCFI of $1 million or more. Small farms are further divided based on whether the principal operator works primarily on or off the farm.

To access all the data products from the Census typology report, including Highlights, infographics and maps, visit www.agcensus.usda.gov.

Link to news release

The next segment in the Growing California video series, a partnership with California Grown, is “Cow Power.”

UC Davis veterinary surgeons prepare to operate on an ailing tiger in 2013. Photo from the Davis Enterprise

U.S. News & World Report has recognized the School of Veterinary Medicine at University of California, Davis, as the nation’s best veterinary school. The 2016 U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools rankings also recognized many of UC Davis’ professional schools and graduate programs as among the nation’s best.

The UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, which annually cares for more than 48,000 animal patients and is educating more than 500 veterinary students plus residents and grad students, was ranked second in 2011, the last time vet schools were ranked by the magazine. The school runs a veterinary medical teaching hospital at UC Davis and satellite clinics in San Diego and the San Joaquin Valley community of Tulare.

Veterinary faculty members work to solve society’s most pressing health issues by collaborating with colleagues from human medicine and other disciplines. An example of its “one health” approach is a recent $100 million grant to the veterinary school to coordinate surveillance for disease-causing microbes, discovering new viruses and strengthening global health capacity in more than 20 countries.

Link to news release

Each year, more than one-million students learn about the importance of agriculture through the efforts of California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom. This spring, Agriculture in the Classroom will partner with CDFA and the California Women for Agriculture to host California Ag Day 2015 as part of National Ag Week (March 15-21).

On March 18, the State Capitol will come alive with farm animals, educational displays, and entertainment all celebrating California’s great agricultural bounty during California Agriculture Day. The theme for the 2015 event is “California Agriculture: Breaking new Ground.” A focus will be the importance of soil health to our food supply and all of agriculture.

Ag Day is the agricultural community’s annual opportunity to educate and inspire the farmers and ranchers of tomorrow, showcase new technologies, and highlight the diversity of California agriculture.

California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Secretary Karen Ross, along with 12 other industry leaders, are members of the National Agriculture Week host committee. The host committee helps plan and promote special events throughout the state.

“Please join me and other leaders in agriculture as we support the education of our next generation of consumers and voters,” said Secretary Ross. “National Agriculture Week gives us the opportunity to celebrate agriculture, an industry that provides a safe, abundant, and affordable food supply, a strong economy, and a world of job opportunities.”

An additional Ag Week event will be held on March 19 at the Sacramento Kings’ Experience Center in Sacramento, to recognize student winners of Ag in the Classroom’s Imagine this… Story Writing Contest. Student authors will attend and read their stories from the newly published Imagine this… books to the audience. A southern California event will be held aboard The Queen Mary on April 2.

Since 1986, The California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom, a non-profit organization, has worked to promote a greater awareness of agriculture’s role in our daily lives to California’s teachers and students. The Foundation delivers exciting, standards-based curriculum that builds students’ knowledge of the farmers and ranchers who produce the food, clothing, and shelter they use every day. Agriculture in the Classroom programs reach far beyond the classroom walls and into the lives of California’s students and their families.

Link to more information about National Ag Week events

By Krysta Harden, Deputy Secretary, USDA

Recently, there has been a series of media reports suggesting the gangbusters growth in farmers markets is slowing, signaling a plateau in the local food movement. Not so. What we’re seeing is the evolution of the local and regional food movement beyond weekend shopping into something more substantial and sustainable.

In a sense, what we food lovers are observing is a basic lesson in supply and demand.

According to a recent report from USDA’s Economic Research Service, farmers across the country sold an estimated $6.1 billion in locally marketed foods in 2012. This is serious money. More and more of it is coming from sales to retailers, institutions and restaurants rather than through farmers markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs). In other words, the demand side is maturing as businesses pay more attention to what their customers want.

On the supply side, we already know that from 2006 to 2014, the number of American farmers markets jumped 180 percent to 8,260, giving farmers across the country opportunities for robust direct-to-consumer sales. This growth is due, in part, to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s significant commitment to local and regional food systems beginning in 2009 under President Barack Obama. Today, these markets give farmers opportunities to grow their businesses and meet the evolving demands of customers and consumers.

One change came through farm-to-school programs. In 2012, more than 4,300 school districts reported spending more than $385 million on local food through farm-to-school programs. In California, there are over 2,600 schools spending more than $51 million on local food.

There are also 760 farmers markets in California and for several years running, the National Restaurant Association has been identifying locally sourced produce, meat and seafood among the top culinary trends.

These numbers show that not only is the local food movement alive and well, it is growing up and becoming a healthy, established part of the broader marketplace.

Therein lies the flaw in the latest reports about farmers markets. As demand for local food grows, so do the supporting businesses. In many cases, restaurants, schools, supermarkets and other institutions are using regional food hubs to move local food from farmers to meet wholesale, retail and institutional needs. There are now more than 135 operational food hubs in our national directory, and 10 are in California.

Where is all this local food coming from and who is producing it? According to the 2012 USDA Census of Agriculture, more than 163,600 farms were engaged in the local food sector across the country and relying on both direct-to-consumer retail opportunities as well as institutional buyers. So, as farmers expand their reach, options for consumers expand, too, and people have more opportunities to get locally produced food directly from retailers in a variety of settings, including their supermarkets, cafeterias, schools, restaurants and hospitals.

The USDA Census of Agriculture also notes that nearly one of every five American farmers has operated a farm for less than 10 years. These new farmers are innovative, entrepreneurial and creative. They are as diverse as American agriculture itself. They are growing traditional crops and new varieties, organic produce, and heirloom products. They are developing added-value products from sauces to ciders. They are part of row-crop farms and are employing cutting-edge technology. More than ever, they are developing their businesses to meet the demand for locally sourced food.

USDA is investing in these new and beginning farmers by offering the tools and resources they need to succeed, like easier access to capital through microloans, business development training and education, and changes in crop insurance to help manage risk for a wider variety of crops. USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative coordinates our work as the local food market sector continues to grow. In the past two years alone, USDA has made over 500 investments in food hubs, local processing facilities and distribution networks.

As market demands continue to grow and evolve, the local and regional food movement has proven again that the best is yet to come.

SACRAMENTO — The Final Grape Crush Report includes all grape tonnage crushed during the 2014 season.  Changes in tonnage, Brix and prices from the preliminary report to this final report were due to late reports and corrections to the original data.  Reporting errors by some processors have caused a change in some district/variety entries.

The 2014 crush totaled 4,142,934 tons, down 12 percent from the record high 2013 crush of 4,700,377 tons.  Red wine varieties accounted for the largest share of all grapes crushed, at 2,138,294 tons, down 12 percent from 2013.  The 2014 white wine variety crush totaled 1,754,503 tons, down 4 percent from 2013.  Tons crushed of raisin type varieties totaled 155,514, down 53 percent from 2013, and tons crushed of table type varieties totaled 94,623, down 25 percent from 2013.

The 2014 average price per ton of all varieties was $743.07, up 4 percent from 2013.  Average prices for the 2014 crop by type were as follows: red wine grapes, $892.06, up 5 percent from 2013; white wine grapes, $595.61, down 4 percent from 2013; raisin grapes, $232.79, down 9 percent; and table grapes, $233.70, up 5 percent.

In 2014, Chardonnay accounted for the largest percentage of the total crush volume with 17.3 percent.  Cabernet Sauvignon accounted for the second leading percentage of crush with 12.3 percent of the total crush.  The next eight highest percentages of grapes crushed included wine and raisin grape varieties.  Thompson Seedless, the leading raisin grape variety crushed for 2014, held 3.2 percent of the total crush.

District 13, (Madera, Fresno, Alpine, Mono, Inyo Counties; and Kings and Tulare Counties north of Nevada Avenue (Avenue 192)), had the largest share of the State’s crush, at 1,336,946 tons.  The average price per ton in District 13 was $307.18.

Grapes produced in District 4 (Napa County) received the highest average price of $4,077.31 per ton, up 10 percent from 2013.  District 3 (Sonoma and Marin counties) received the second highest return of $2,318.92, up 4 percent from 2013.  The 2014 Chardonnay price of $860.60 was down 1 percent from 2013, and the Cabernet Sauvignon price of $1,426.30 was up 6 percent from 2013.  The 2014 average price for Zinfandel was $623.70, down 4 percent from 2013, while the Merlot average price was up 3 percent from 2013 at $774.70 per ton.

Link to release

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USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced the availability of more than $66.5 million in funding for research and extension activities to address the needs of America’s specialty crop industry and solve critical organic agricultural production issues. The grants will be funded through the Specialty Crop Research Initiative and the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative. Both programs are administered by USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and made available through the 2014 Farm Bill.

“Investments in projects to help organic producers and specialty crop growers are an important way USDA helps American farmers establish new business opportunities throughout the country,” said Vilsack. “The projects funded by these programs will build on USDA support for local and regional markets. And strengthening local markets grows the rural economy while improving access to healthy food for millions of children and supplying farmers markets, restaurants and other businesses with fresh, high-quality fruits and vegetables.”

Specialty crops are defined in law as “fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits and horticulture and nursery crops, including floriculture.” The Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) develops and disseminates science-based tools to address the needs of specific crops. The projects funded address research and extension needs for crops that span the entire spectrum of specialty crops production, from researching plant genetics to improving crop characteristics; identifying and addressing threats from pests and diseases; improving production and profitability; developing new production innovations and technologies; and developing methods to respond to food safety hazards.

SCRI pre-applications are due March 30, 2015, and full applications are due July 2, 2015. Please see the request for applications for specific program requirements.

Additionally, in fiscal year 2015, NIFA will make $25 million available through the Citrus Disease Research and Extension (CDRE) program, a subset of SCRI focused on research and extension activities to improve citrus health. NIFA will issue a supplemental Request For Applications for CDRE subsequently.

The purpose of the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI) is to fund high-priority research, education, and extension projects that enhance the ability of producers and processors who have already adopted organic standards to grow and market high quality organic products. Priority concerns include biological, physical, and social sciences, including economics.

Funded projects will aid farmers and ranchers with whole farm planning by delivering practical research-based information and will improve the ability for growers to develop the Organic System Plan required for certification.

A Notification of Intent to Submit an Application is due on April 1, 2015. Full applications are due April 30, 2015. Please see the request for applications for specific program requirements.

Link to full news release